


Paint me (a million dreams)

by vthelarrie



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Competition, Enemies to Lovers, Fluff, M/M, Painting, Rich Harry, Rich Louis Tomlinson, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-29
Updated: 2019-11-29
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:41:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21608491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vthelarrie/pseuds/vthelarrie
Summary: where Louis and Harry are obsessed with paintings. They see each other at every auction in their city but have never talked. One day they both get infatuated with one particular painting. They both want it. Only one of them can have it.A small, enemies to lovers kind of au that was inspired by a picture.
Relationships: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson
Kudos: 65





	Paint me (a million dreams)

Louis had been to enough auctions to know the drill. They usually start with the smaller paintings first, the ones that are not from very famous artists, the type of painting you would buy for someone when you truly don’t know what to get them for Christmas, or a birthday you were not expected to go to. Sometimes Louis would do that, buy several small paintings to have a backup gift is he needs it. Tonight, though, Louis has his eyes caught on a painting he saw as soon as he arrived, hidden in between the ones that will go for sale before it.

Louis knows how auctions work. While the smaller paintings are selling there will be staff people giving wine to everyone, sometimes even champagne, it’s a very smart strategy, it gets people a bit tipsy, just enough for them to think it would be a great idea to spend a few hundred or thousand dollars on a painting.

He has money to spare though, he doesn’t have to worry about being broke in the morning, so he always accepts these drinks gratefully, winking at the staff guy if they are handsome enough to get his attention. Somedays he might even bring one of them home. That’s one of the things he enjoys the most about his life, he has a big apartment that allows him to bring people over without worrying about how much noise they make; an advantage of being a successful stockbroker. Now, starting off his thirties as a single man, finally living on its own which, trust him, is very much appreciated after growing up on a house of nine, he couldn’t be more grateful of having enough money that allows him to enjoy these small luxuries as auctions.

Louis starts talking to guy on his right, accepting a glass of wine while they talk about their favorite paintings of the night, or at least the ones they have seen so far or that are hanging on the sides on display. The guy, Niall he thinks is his name, points towards the one Louis got his eye when he first looked around the room.

“Sorry, man,” Louis says, grinning, “but you’ll have to compete with me for that one”. He means it half as a joke and half sincerely; the canvas is truly marvelous, it’s a picture of a port, nothing too fancy, a few boats and a cliff with huge rocks that go inside the ocean. To be completely honest there’s nothing quite unique about the landscape itself, but there’s something about how it is painted, the technique the artist used, that makes it so special.

“Well then,” Niall says, taking his time tasting the wine, giving an approving nod once he gulps half the glass down his throat, “I don’t think I’ll even try, after all… you are the best on getting every painting you want. I’ve seen you before, Tomlinson”.

“I guess we all see each other, and you’re not so bad yourself, Niall, but I feel like you don’t buy that many paintings”.

“All of us don’t have the same amount of money to spare as you do,” Niall replicates, taking another glass of wine from a staff member.

“That’s a very fair point,” Louis says, raising his still untouched glass of wine, and looking around to see if someone else is eyeing _his_ painting.

Just as he’s squinting at some guy who looks suspicious, he feels a warn body on his left. He looks sneakily to his side, trying to avoid eye contact but also wanting to see who’s sitting beside him. It’s not like he minds someone sitting next to him, he is not that much of an asshole, and the room is starting to fill up so the seat beside him was literally one of the only ones left.

Next to Louis is no other than mister Harry Styles, impossible to miss if you’ve been to as many auctions as Louis has. Not only because of his gorgeous eyes and curls, or because of his hands which, Louis cannot stop staring at for the life of him; but because he buys as many canvases as Louis does, and for the last three years they have been doing this there has been a silent competition about who gets the price as the “better buyer” at the end of the year. Louis won last year, and he’s aiming to do it again. He doesn’t know if Harry actually cares about the award at all but is a small victory that Louis will appreciate no matter what.

The room starts to quiet down as the auctioneer steps into the podium, and Louis sees as some guys from the staff start to collect the first set of paintings that will be offered. There isn’t any that gets his attention, and he’s honestly not going to spend money when he has his eyes on the port one, Louis feels like he’ll have to fight for that one.

Harry Styles buys two paintings on the first hour and three on the second. He is honestly starting to get into Louis’ nerves, with his deep voice and raising a hand more often than not, making his perfume fly all the way to Louis’ nostrils is distracting him. Then there’s also the fact that if he keeps spending this much money tonight, he’ll certainly beats Louis in his inner competition.

“Jesus, how much money can you spend on that?” Louis mutters to Niall, pointing at the painting Harry just bought. “’S not like it’s any good,” he continues, still talking to Niall buy his eyes betray him and look towards the curly lad, the latter having a smug look on his face, his mouth twitching into a smile.

“You know, the beautiful thing about art is that it’s different for everyone,” Harry says, his deep voice hitting Louis’ stomach, and he definitely does not blush at being caught. He does not.

“Maybe,” Louis says, clearing his throat before he starts to speak again, “but you have to admit there’s still and objective parameter as to things that are objectively ugly, and that, my friend is what you just bought”.

“I don’t agree,” Harry retorts, his eyes sparkling defiantly, “even in the ugliest looking things there’s still a beauty to them”.

 _Great,_ Louis thinks, he’s sitting next to a hipster. It’s a Friday night and he absolutely does not feel like arguing so he just rolls his eyes and drinks from his wine again, it’s been a bit more than two hours and he still is on his first glass. Wow. He really should go out tonight after this.

As the evening progresses, they are getting closer to his painting, he knows it because the stack of canvases is getting progressively smaller and he can see even better the paint now.

Once his painting gets put into the paint stand, Louis hold his breath, ready to raise his hand as soon as the auctioneer speaks.

“This is, unfortunately, the last painting we’ll be selling tonight,” the auctioneer begins, it was kind of obvious, Louis thinks, as they usually save the best paintings for last. “This is called ‘ _Eroda’s port_ ’, a painting inspired by the private island with said name. The traces of paint in this are magnificent, but since is our last one we will start on the modest sum of 1.000 dollars”.

Louis raises his hand. A thousand dollars is the least he was expecting to pay tonight so it’s a good place to start. Almost as quickly as his hand raises, another one does too.

“A thousand dollars say Mr. Tomlinson,” the auctioneer says, but sees the other hand at the same time as Louis does. “A thousand and five hundred for Mr. Styles,” he continues; Louis head turns around as quick as a lighting.

 _Really?_ Out of all people in the room it had to be Harry fucking Styles the other person obsessed with his painting? Fuck that. He was not having it. Louis raises his hand again.

“Two thousand for Mr. Tomlinson,” says the auctioneer, “he really wants that painting, huh? Who can give me three thousand? Three thousand for Mr. styles, who is apparently as obsessed as his seating partner. Can I get four thousand?” he doesn’t even finish the question when Louis raises his hand again. “Four thousand for Louis, is he going to take it home? Or will I get five thousand?”.

Harry raises his hand again, this time not looking at the auctioneer but at Louis.

“Stop it,” Louis hisses, “it’s mine,” he states as he raises his hand again, the price going up to six thousand now.

“At least you can agree on my taste in beauty now,” Harry replies, his hand going up again, his eyes still on Louis.

“I’ll agree with you once you let me have that painting,” Louis says, angry now, raising his hand for what feels like the hundredth time, he’s pretty sure the price is close to ten thousand now.

Suddenly the mallet hits the wood and both Louis and Harry snap their heads towards the mini stage. They had been too busy with each other they hadn’t noticed the third person raising his hand at the last minute.

“Sold!” the auctioneer screams, “Sold to the lovely Malik-Payne marriage. I’m very glad you finally bought something tonight boys, now, if you could please come forward to do the paperwork… and for all the rest, thank you so much for coming and I hope to see you next month”.

Louis couldn’t believe it. He had never lost a painting before, let alone against Harry Styles; and it wasn’t even as if he lost it _against_ him, he lost _because_ of him, and that’s a whole new level of wrong.

“I can’t believe I lost thanks to you,” Louis says, his voice dripping with fury. “This is all your fault and now none of us got the stupid painting”.

“Excuse me? I wasn’t the only one not paying attention,” Harry replies, not nearly as angry as Louis sounds.

“It’s still your fault, if you hadn’t been distracting me-”.

“Distracting you with what?!” Harry hisses, now looking angrier than before and Louis can’t deny he feels pleased.

 _Distracting me with those fucking green eyes_ , Louis wants to say. He doesn’t though, only stares at Harry for a bit longer, both breathing heavy thanks to the heated discussion they just had. Louis lets his eyes wonder to Harry’s mouth for a second, and dammit, the things he would with that mouth, how _useful_ it would be. His eyes go up to meet Harry’s again, blue and green colliding.

“Wanna go get a drink?” Harry asks, his voice hoarse, “you know, drown our sorrows with the other”.

“Thought you would never ask, Styles”.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading this. Please leave kudos and comments if you liked it!
> 
> This was inspired by a collection of images posted by @hstylwt on twitter
> 
> You can follow me on twitter, my username is @00svicky to know more about my fics!
> 
> Love you xx


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